Wealdstone FC Launch Community Pilots

WEALDSTONE FOOTBALL CLUB LAUNCH COMMUNITY PILOTS The newly formed Wealdstone Foundation Trust today announced details of two pilot projects they will be running as a part of their work in the community. The Ruislip based club has been increasingly active in recent years in reaching out to the community at large to spread the benefits of football and how a locally based club can assist in improving people’s quality of life. The football club is already deeply involved in developing local youth football through its links with Stanmore College, who run several sides under the Wealdstone banner, and the Wealdstone FC Youth section that run 32 teams for 6 to 18 year olds. There are also Wealdstone ladies teams now firmly established as part of the Stones organisation. Its associated Ruislip Social Club runs and hosts numerous activities for those in the local community. The Vanarama National League, of which Wealdstone FC is a member, has established a Trust (The Football Conference Trust) which provides funds (made available by the English Premier League and the Professional Footballers’ Association) for its member clubs to set up their own charitable arms, or Trusts, in order to organise and run schemes that might benefit their local communities. Wealdstone has formed its own Trust and successfully applied to the Football Conference Trust for funds to pilot two community based schemes. The Wealdstone Football Trust will be reaching out to the opposite ends of the age scale with the two schemes they will be piloting. The first is Walking Football for men over 50 who are Ruislip and Hillingdon residents. Walking Football is a burgeoning activity around the country that encourages men, having reached a “certain age”, to take up a form of the sport commensurate with their age and fitness levels. It is popular, enjoyable, and, under the guidance of qualified FA Coaches, encourages an improvement in skills and fitness levels. The first Walking Football session will be held on Wednesday 7th July 2015 from 8.00 pm at the Hillingdon sports and Leisure Centre, Gatting Way, Uxbridge UB8 1ES and will continue to run for a further 9 weeks at the same time and location. Should the pilot prove to be successful the aim is to increase the number of sessions on offer to include those in the daytime as well as to operate at other Hillingdon based locations. The second pilot scheme will be launched at the start of the new schools academic year in September 2015. It will be a partnership between The Trust and two Kenton based schools, St Bernadette’s and St Joseph’s, that will develop a maths and football related course for primary year 3 children. It will consist of six classroom maths lessons that will be related to six activity lessons run by Wealdstone Football Club FA Qualified coaches. The aim will be to create an add-on teaching mechanism that, by linking football based activity sessions to the application of mathematics, will help enthuse young schoolchildren sufficiently to assist them in absorbing the basics of maths in an enjoyable setting. Again should it prove to be successful, the project will be extended into other primary schools both in Harrow and across the border in Hillingdon. Wealdstone Football Club views its work in the community as being a vital element of its activities and the establishment of these two pilot projects is an exciting and innovative way of improving still further its links with local people.